Liverpool confirm owners want to sell

Liverpool's American owners confirmed Friday they want to sell the debt-ridden Premier League club after three troubled years in charge.

Written by Associated Press

Read Time: 1 mins

Manchester:

Liverpool's American owners confirmed Friday they want to sell the debt-ridden Premier League club after three troubled years in charge. Co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr. have hired Barclays Capital to advise on the sale and announced that British Airways chairman Martin Broughton will take on the same role at Anfield to oversee the process. ``Owning Liverpool Football Club over these past three years has been a rewarding and exciting experience for us and our families,'' Hicks and Gillett said in a joint statement. ``We have now decided together to look to sell the club to owners committed to take the club through its next level of growth and development.'' Details of the plans were reported Saturday by The Associated Press, but the confirmation was delayed until after Thursday's 21st anniversary of the Hillsborough stadium disaster, which claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool fans. For more than two years, Hicks and Gillett have been trying to attract investors to reduce the debt resulting from their leveraged takeover in 2007, which stands at 237 million pounds ($364 million), and raise finances to build a new stadium to replace Anfield.